Handel's oratorio has its basis in Milton's dramatic poem Samson Agonistes, and further back in the Old Testament. Its focus falls on the Israelite warrior in his final phase: blinded following his betrayal by his Philistine wife, Dalila, and goaded into his last heroic act, when he crushes himself as well as his pagan enemies in their temple.

Mark Padmore sang the title role in this Prom performance, keenly expressing the suffering and almost ascetic nobility of an individual conscious of having failed not just himself but his nation and his god as well; but there were times when one wanted more textual highlighting and more vocal variety in an interpretation that rarely deviated from a monumental, wounded dignity.

Neal Davies offered more personal qualities in his compassionate representation of Samson's father, Manoa; while as Micah, Iestyn Davies's superb musicianship combined with the translucent beauty of his countertenor to raise his secondary character to the centre of attention. As the Philistine champion Harapha, Christopher Purves revelled in the possibilities of the crudely boastful warrior, topped off with some magnificently vainglorious high notes.

Dalila herself was well served by Susan Gritton's gracefully sensuous approach, aided by a slinky dress that identified her as an oratorio harlot, while Lucy Crowe's Israelite Woman made a splash in the work's famous penultimate number, Let the Bright Seraphim.

Yet overall, with The English Concert, its attendant choir and The New Company under Harry Bicket's direction, there was sometimes a staid air to proceedings. Neither the choral singing nor the orchestral playing offered the ideal combination of precision and fantasy needed to keep the score in the air for nearly four hours. A few more cuts might not have gone amiss.